10-3-11

Dearest Family,

 

We have VERY little time today, so I will have to keep this super short. Forgive me!

 

News of the week........... We got another companion! Her name is Sister Dunn and she is from California. She had been in the St George mission awaiting her Visa for 2 weeks. President called us on Monday night and asked some questions and then Tuesday called to tell us that we would be getting another companion in about an hour and they would be bringing her. She is a really good missionary and has lots of good goals. To be honest, some things are tricky, like trying to get 3 people ready in the morning in under an hour, trying to make sure everyone is involved in everything, etc, but after a few days, we have pretty much gotten the hang of things. Things are different with 3, but it´s good.

 

Wasn´t conference just amazing! I am convinced that every talk was specifically about missionary work and I love that! I learned a lot of things that my investigators need, learned how I can be more patient with myself, and learned a TON about being a better missionary. It was really wonderful and edifying. We had 3 investigators there. It was kinda sad, because we were expecting 15, and figured at least 8 of those would come, but the 3 that came were really wonderful and very touched by the conference.

 

Other great news! One of our investigators found her papers and is now going to be married! YAY! It takes about 3 to 5 weeks to make that happen, and then she can finally be baptized after 10 years of investigating! Wow. So wonderful.

 

We had a "fake baptism" this Tuesday!!! It wasn´t actually fake, but we say fake because it wasn´t ours. We have been working with a less active family to get them back to church and teaching their son to prepare him for baptism. He is adorable and so very wonderful! We had been planning for him to be baptized on his 9th birthday (Saturday) after conference, but then his family got everything together and he was able to be baptized on Tuesday... since he was still 8, he is considered a ward baptism. We still sort of count him in our minds because we have been working with them this past month and teaching him. It´s cool... we didn´t want to postpone the baptism for sure. It was a great little service though, and he was super cute and his family was all very happy.

The work is moving along. We finally feel that we have a handle on the area and things have picked up. It´s really fun to be in this new sister area and be opening the work of Hermanas here. It´s crazy, because we have 25 Hermanas in the mission... a record... and this next transfer, we are getting something like 5 or 6 more and none are going home!!! Wow! President Gulbrandsen says that he thinks that more Sisters are responding to the call to serve than Elders. ha. But anyways, the work is good. We have 3 with baptismal dates, and a goal for 6 baptism in October. Since we are in the middle of Capitol, lots of people are more worried about going to work, their social lives, and other big city stuff, but MANY are willing to listen.

Love you all!

Hermana Shelley